We created a number of gardens on this delightful North Yorkshire country estate over a ten-year period and one of them we draped over a gently rolling area of open grass as a verdant strolling garden. After some vital investment in the improvement of the soil structure we set about creating a network of large planted beds, leaving great rivers of grass between them to encourage the joy to be had from ambling through verdant planting without an apparent destination. We deployed a relaxed palette of varying tree forms alongside both clipped and loose shrubs, inter-woven with flowering perennials and grasses, encouraging in our clients, with their busy schedules, to venture to this more far-flung part of the garden and lose themselves in texture and colour. In places, the grass has been left to grow long, heightening the sense of nature pushing back, while in other areas the plants have been allowed, in contrast to the more controlled gardens near the house, to wander into one another and own their space. We’ve carefully contrasted this with the very occasional shaping of multi-stem trees and evergreen shrubs, lending this part of the garden a loose yet playful aesthetic. It has been a real delight seeing this garden settle onto these slopes, taking on a tangible sense of belonging.